Friday, November 16, 2012
at
9:33 AM

As part of our ongoing commitment to provide you with comprehensive and accurate maps, we continue to steadily release new and updated imagery of places around the world as it becomes available. Here, we’ll take you on a short tour of some of our favorite locations that were included in the most recently published batch of aerial, satellite and 45-degree imagery.

New high resolution aerial and satellite imagery: The aerial and satellite imagery in Google Maps and Google Earth has now been updated for 164 cities and 108 countries/regions. Below are a few highlights from Washington state and Austria.

The Emerald City is bucking its nickname to celebrate the Space Needle’s 50th anniversary. Check out the image below, where you can see Seattle’s iconic landmark repainted to it’s original “Galaxy Orange” color scheme.

Space Needle, Seattle

From towering above the clouds in Seattle to a celebration of rooftop art in Austria, below we find an art installation where visitors are encouraged to ascend to the top of a rooftop and travel a set of wooden bridges to see the city from a new perspective.

Bridges in the Sky, Linz, Austria

New 45° imagery available for 60 cities: Our collection of 45° imagery in Google Maps has also recently expanded to include 40 more U.S. cities and 20 more international cities, including Luxembourg and Romania for the first time. Below are some fantastic sites from Luxembourg and Switzerland.

Though one of the smallest countries in the world by size, this European Grand Duchy plays an important role in politics because it’s the site of several institutions and agencies of the European Union. Below is one of the administrative and conference buildings.

Settlements near the Swiss pre-alpine town of Thun can be dated back as far as Neolithic times around 2500 B.C. The city’s name derives from the Celtic term “Dunum” which translates to “fortified city.” Below is Thun Castle, which was erected by the Zaehringer dynasty around 1190 A.D. and which serves as the home of the district court of the Bernese Oberland until 2009.